Stray Blood
by Jessie Dagger
Summary: You must always remember that there are things that lurk in the darkness, that not even the light can protect you from.
1. Prologue: Home

Large paws padded across the ground in a slow fashion, as if the creature baring them had no intention of moving quickly. The large body of a beast was shrouded by the darkness of trees and the night around it, but its orange eyes glowed brightly none the less. Suddenly the creature's trek was halted intentionally, its nose snuffling the air for a moment before a hungry sort of snarl rumbled in its throat.

If it was light out, anyone would have seen that the large beast was actually very thin, it's fur matted and dirty. The beast did not look as if it had stayed in any one place for long, rather it looked like it was always on the move and never bothered to care about its appearance.

The creature's ear's swiveled forwards as it listened to the sounds around it intently before it seemed to have made up its mind, and began to move forwards again, only this time in a more focused jog. It had a scent now, a destination in mind. No doubt the beast was looking for food too, but it had come to this small town for a much different reason. It had come to form a pack.

He was home.


	2. Chapter One: Morning Walk

BEEP BEEP BEEP-

Rebekah's eyes squinted into the darkness of her room, hand still firmly atop her alarm clock. Her tired eyes blinked a few times as she slowly started to drift to sleep again before a loud, excited series of barks rudely interrupted her.  
"Rory stop!" She yelled out as she pushed a pillow onto her face, trying to drown out her dog's insistent barking. "Comeon Rory, _whhhhy?_ " She groaned into her pillow before giving up on returning to sweet, sweet sleep.

Tired arms helped Beka put on her clothes for the early morning, it was all routine but that didn't make it any easier. With an annoyed frown on her face, Beka finally emerged from her room wearing black clothing that consisted of jeans, a long sleeve shirt and a jacket. In an attempt to put her hair up into a messy bun as she walked, the brunet nearly tipped over her own feet as she walked through her parents' house quietly. "Damnit…!" She cursed softly before she finally made it to Rory's crate in one piece.

Rory stood up, his brown eyes bright as his whole body shook with excitement. Beka squinted at his cheerfulness, how on earth could someone be that happy at this time of the morning? With a disbelieving shake of her head, Beka grabbed Rory's leash and collar off the nearby wall before she opened up her dog's crate, which allowed for an excitable German shepherd to nearly slam into her legs.  
"Nonono, come back Rory- _Rory!_ " She hissed under her breath before she jogged after the dog and wrapped her arms around him, trapping the dog before she quickly put his bright red collar on.  
"Ha! Gotcha now." The teenager said, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips as she watched her dog physically deflate at being caught. "Oh come on, it's time for a walk." She told him softly, which perked him right up.

Turning towards her door, leash in hand, Beka reached for a pen off the fridge before she scribbled a short note on a pad of paper 'Taking Rory for a walk don't panic again' was all she wrote before she was out the door into the brisk chilly air that was a trademark of Autumn. Shivering a little, the girl walked forwards quickly to warm herself up which didn't mind Rory at all, he was too stoked to be outside.

Rebeka headed quickly for her backyard woods, which were currently lit with a dark blue light since the sun wasn't up yet. If she didn't have to hold onto her leash, she probably could have warmed up her freezing hands but nope, she did have a tugging dog on her hands. "Could you be any more of a puppy?" She asked Rory accusingly before they trudged head-on into the woods.

It had been around 10 minutes into the walk before Rory finally decided he should actually go to the bathroom and not sniff the air for absolutely no reason. "Finally, dude I swear you hold it in." She pointed out to the dog with a roll of her eyes before they continued the walk for a bit more. That was when something strange happened.  
Her normally cheerful, happy-go-lucky Rory started to growl, full out snarl at a nearby set of tangled bushes. Frankly that shocked Beka to a halt as she stared at her dog, then at the bushes, "Rory- what's wrong?" She whispered to the dog as she started to get the feeling of butterflies under her skin.

Whispering was such a bad idea because no her dog was pulling at the end of the leash so hard that Beka was sure she couldn't hold on, "Rory stop! No!" She snapped at him in frustration as she dug her heels forcefully into the dirt. Suddenly Rory wasn't tugging on his leash anymore, rather he was cowering behind her and whimpering like he was terrified. The sudden mood change had Beka entirely focused on her dog, and she almost missed a sudden crack of a stick.

Almost. As the teen's attention was grabbed forwards she realized there was a deep rumble starting from the bushes before it grew louder... It took her a moment to realize the rumble was growling. With a gulp Beka stepped back, her legs hitting Rory's sides as she looked at the bushes with wide, terrified eyes. There in the shadows were a pair of bright orange, glowing eyes.

It all happened so fast, one moment all they saw were eyes, and the next a massive dark shape was running full speed at the two of them. And then it was like slow motion, a large paw slammed into Beka's side before a scream ripped through her throat as sharp fangs dug deep into her right shoulder. She swore she heard the crunch of her bones, every one of them as the thing bit her, tearing at her flesh. Forgetting all about holding onto a leash, Beka's cold hands dropped it and began to smack into the creature, her fists weakly coming in contact with black fur that covered solid, hard muscles. She could hear Rory barking at the beast, but she didn't take the time to see him as tears squeezed from her eyes. The pain- it was too much.

Another scream tore through her throat, making it rawer than before, as her arm was torn up, the creature's fangs digging deep into her flesh. Bear's didn't attack people like this did they?! Beka didn't have much time to think more on that though as black spots swarmed her vision, blood dripping from her shoulder, sliding down her back and soaking her clothes. The Bear shoved itself against her, paws forcing her down to the ground. As she swayed backwards, her mind didn't have much time to process that Rory had leaped at the beast, instead her head came into contact with the forest floor.

Her mind blanked as her vision darkened further, her hearing drowned out by the pounding in her ears. She finally realized that there wasn't a bear on her, in fact she was on the ground alone… When did that happen? As dizziness and pain smacked into her body, Becca could see that Rory as on top of the bear, which would have caused her to scream at him if she could get her throat working. Her head sunk painfully before she began to black out, whether from blood loss of pain. The last sound Beka heard was a loud, commanding howl from miles away.


End file.
